The Mech Touch

Ves felt as if he had turned into a beast!

Much of his calm and rationality as a mech designer had taken a backseat as the more primal part of his cognition had been brought to the fore!

His extremely exaggerated physical condition made him feel as if he had become stronger than any human.

Not just Ves, but any human that suddenly transcended the weakness of his own physique and started to match the size and physical strength of mechs would feel the same!

Mechs played a huge role in human society. They were the mainstay fighting machines for several centuries, and they had developed a strong and extensive image of martial might in everyone's mind.

For Ves to transition from a puny human to a genuine phase lord was such a significant transformation that he could not help but get lost in his newfound power!

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

Ves threw himself at the bots that entered the testing chamber on a continuous basis!

He punched the metal exterior of the bots without fear of breaking his own knuckles. The relatively soft and thin metal layers easily deformed whenever he punched or kicked them with his limbs!

Though the bots soon started to resist more actively and try to attack him from multiple directions, his spatial barrier easily blocked the attacks.

The forces exerted by the bots were not that strong at the moment, and their lack of transphasic properties made it very difficult to exhaust the spatial barrier!

"HAHAHAHAHAl SO THIS IS WHAT IT IS LIKE TO FIGHT LIKE A MECH!"

Previously, he had only been able to feel what it was like to possess the combat power of a mech by going on a Mastery experience.

Even then, he was only able to hitchhike in the mind of a mech pilot, making it so that there was an extra layer of separation between himself and the powerful machines.

This was no longer the case!

Ves' entire body had turned into the equivalent of a transphasic biomech!

Although there were still many differences between his current state and a real biomech, there was enough resemblance that he had the illusion that he could fight and win against an actual machine!

"STRONGER! I NEED THEM TO BE STRONGER!"

The mechers obliged. They had already gathered enough data on Ves' current state to develop a much more accurate estimate of how much he could handle.

"Send in the second-class battle bots." Jovy commanded after he had studied the data.

The weak bots all disappeared from the testing chamber.

Soon, a dozen stronger and more well-equipped bots had entered the fray!

Half of them were armed with rifles while the other half was armed with various melee weapons.

Ves could immediately tell that these were serious battle bots that could pose an actual threat onto second-class mechs.

That meant that their threat to him was not negligible!

It appeared that the mechers were so interested in testing his current limits that they were willing to take a few risks.

"Get ready, Ves. Don't forget that you can command us to stop at any time if you cannot take it anymore. Do not try to fight past your limit."

"I'M NOT THAT FRAGILE, JOVY. JUST START ALREADY!"

The ones with ranged weapons quickly started to open fire onto Ves!

Most of the initial attacks did not exert that much strain on his defenses. Even if he removed his spatial barrier, he had a high degree of confidence that his abnormally dense and phasewater-reinforced body could resist the attacks for a time.

What surprised Ves was that a few of the ranged machines were actually armed with transphasic weapons!

The laser beams and gauss rounds inflicted significant damage to his spatial barrier, making it so that Ves could not ignore their threat.

Ves tried to move and evade, but he found out that he lacked the grace and finesse of a true light mech.

His movements were clumsy and clearly marked by lack of systematic training.

He was unable to dance around the battlefield like the light mechs he had designed in the past.

Phase lords were not meant to be swift and agile!

Their body cultivation focused on promoting their size, mass and phasewater concentration so that they could become absolutely titanic powerhouses that could crush everything by relying on brute force alone!

Dodging was not their style. If they couldn't withstand powerful attacks, then they just needed to make their bodies big enough!

What that meant was that Ves realized that he was not necessarily able to gain the upper hand when he fought against equally-sized mechs and machines, at least when it came to physical performance.

However, a phase lord possessed more advantages than a massive body!

The appearance of a full squad of battle bots was a signal that Ves should no longer stick to simple methods.

He needed to utilize the comprehensive abilities of a phase lord in order to beat this challenge!

"COME!" Ves shouted!

The bots armed with swords, spears and shields jogged forward while maintaining a solid line.

This made it harder for Ves to isolate them and eliminate them one at a time.

It was a good thing that Ves did not intend to confront them first.

He concentrated for a moment and activated all of the phasewater in his body at once!

For whatever reason, it had become a lot easier for him to pull off this step!

Crack!

Ves instantly disappeared from his place and quickly appeared behind the row of ranged bots that were pointing their rifles in the wrong direction!

Though the bots responded remarkably quickly by turning around, Ves was too close to let them have their way!

"DEATH!"

He utilized his raw power to grab and tear one of the ranged bots apart, only to get blocked by an energy shield.

"THAT WON'T STOP ME FOR LONG!"

Ves instinctively concentrated on his fist and caused it to gain transphasic attack properties.

It was a relatively crude and inefficient application, but it was not too difficult to pull it off. He wasn't even worried about tearing his own flesh.

Ves punched again, causing his fist to break through the relatively weak energy shield and almost pierce right through the chest of the relatively fragile machine!

He punched the other nearby battle bots as well, completely ending their threat before they could launch too many attacks.

Ves suddenly looked down at the rifles that they had dropped. They were not designed like ordinary mech rifles, but had been specially modified in several ways.

Even though Ves found it a lot more difficult to maintain the calm and highly analytical mind of a mech designer in his current physical state, his brain had not completely degenerated to the level of a simple brute.

"Let's see."

Ves picked up the transphasic gauss rifle and held it in a relatively unfamiliar grip.

Normal mech weapons were locked to their assigned machines, thereby preventing enemy mechs from taking advantage of them on the battlefield.

This was not the case right now. The mechers had deliberately kept these weapons unlocked to see how Ves could handle them in his current form.

He only received a shallow amount of firearms training, and he mostly stuck to using pistols as opposed to long rifles.

Bang!

Ves couldn't help but feel embarrassed when the first pull of the trigger resulted in a gauss round that missed one of the surviving ranged bots by over five meters!

However, he quickly decided to drop to his knees and take the time to aim his weapon properly.

Bang!

This time, he managed to land a solid hit!

The power of the transphasic gauss rifle was not only able to break the energy shield of his target, but also penetrate through its weak armor.

Even though his aim was still a little off, he easily managed to finish off the crippled machine with a follow-up attack.

Ves fired the weapon several times until he managed to eliminate the other remaining ranged bots.

That significantly reduced the pressure and made him feel a lot less restrained.

At this time, the melee bots had come enough to make it a lot less convenient to keep firing gauss rounds at the incoming machines.

Instead, Ves imitated his second daughter and held his gauss rifle like a club.

"COME!"

Ves clumsily tried to evade most of the incoming strikes while trying to break through the defenses of another mech.

However, he found out that his rifle made for a poorer weapon than his fist. It did not have any transphasic properties when utilized in this manner.

This prevented him from inflicting meaningful damage to the defensive bot that had placed itself at the front!

His spatial barrier clanged as the attacks of the other bots exerted a lot of damage to him. The transphasic sword especially stressed his defenses to the point where Ves had to exert his Kelsis organ more extensively in order to compensate.

Ves tossed aside his useless rifle and started to back off and prevent himself from getting surrounded.

However, the bots had already managed to enclose him from every side!

Ves did not think much further and activated all of the phasewater in his body to displace himself a short distance away!

CRACK!

He immediately emerged behind one of the melee bots. His fist quickly crashed through the energy shield and damaged the vulnerable rear of the machine in question!

A few more transphasic punches was enough to cripple the machine, but by this time several nearby bots had quickly turned around and slammed themselves against his spatial barrier!

"AH!"

The spatial barriers held, but Ves felt so uncomfortable that he couldn't help but back away before he endured more strain.

Ves tried to maneuver around to prevent the bots from ganging up on him, but his agility and movement speed were not as good as that of his adversaries, making this effort useless.

He could only win this bout if he went on the offensive!

Ves began to employ his other spatial abilities. He utilized his Maracos organ to bend the space in front of a mech.

When the machine entered the bent region of space, it suddenly went off course and stumbled to the side, but that was all that happened.

He frowned and tried to activate the same ability onto another machine. This caused him to encounter greater resistance. The bot showed a few signs of distress, but Ves failed to tear it apart from within.

Ves was not strong and skilled enough to pull off this feat!

Since that was the case, Ves stuck to what worked and steadily eliminated the remaining bots one by one by utilizing his strong defenses and his tricky ability to displace himself.

Though the exertion was not small, Ves quickly increased his proficiency in his innate teleportation ability.

Not only was he able to teleport short distances at smaller delays, but he also gained a bit more comprehension of phasewater and the properties of space.

Ves found that his affinity towards space had become much more pronounced. He felt as if he could quickly advance his instinctual understanding of phasewater theory as long as he kept exercising his various spatial abilities in this liberated state!

Crunch!

His transphasic fists grew stronger and more piercing as Ves gradually refined his application of his phase lord power.

By the time he managed to eliminate all of the bots aside from the one equipped like a transphasic knight mech, he was able to repeatedly bash the defenses of this powerful machine until it crumbled under his onslaught!

Ves started to breathe a little heavier. He had exhausted himself quite a bit, to the point where he was starting to grow really hungry.

It appeared that exercising his body and spatial abilities with his true body dramatically increased his energy consumption!

Fortunately, his massively oversized body also possessed enormous energy reserves, making it so that he could probably keep this up for a long time.

"We will give you five minutes to rest before we commence the next phase." Jovy announced.

Ves did not really feel the passage of time in his current state. Five minutes came and went so quickly that he jerked in surprise when an entirely different opponent entered the testing chamber.

A second-class hyper mech had appeared of a design that he did not recognize.

A bad feeling came over Ves. Though the materials and tech incorporated into the machine were not that much better, a real professional mech pilot was in control!

The battle bots of before had all been controlled by dumbed down AIs. There had been no need to make them good as the mechers only wanted to test Ves' raw combat performance.

This time was different. Putting Ves up against a real mech was a more comprehensive test that could truly showcase the differences between a phase lord and the most common weapon platform of humanity!

As a mech designer, Ves deeply appreciated the differences that a trained mech pilot could make. There was no way this second-class mech would be a pushover.